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A driving force for Gender Mainstreaming
June 2007
The second Peer Review of the Community of Practice on Gender Mainstreaming focuses on a dedicated structure within the European Social Fund (ESF) that promotes equality for women and men. The event has been organised as a learning platform on 14th and 15th June 2007, in Dublin and it targets key players from both the new and the old Member States.
Ireland, the host of the Peer Review is making a special contribution to the
string of similar events organised by the
Community of Practice (GM CoP). As a strategy for achieving gender equality
across its ESF co-financed
National
Development Plan (NDP) 2000 – 2006, the Irish Government created a dedicated
structure to promote and facilitate gender mainstreaming throughout the country.
At the Peer Review, the main actors in Ireland will share the learning and good
practices generated by the NDP Gender
Equality Unit (NPD GEU), which will continue its work under a new NPD during
the ESF programming period of 2007-2013.
The peer reviewers of the Irish achievements come from a variety of
backgrounds and include:
- ESF programme managers at national or regional level;
- Representatives of state-led equality and/or gender equality bodies;
- Key individuals from equality and/or gender equality advocacy or
representative organisations; and
- Gender equality and gender mainstreaming experts.
The idea is to have representation from each of the above categories thereby
ensuring that the learning from the Irish model reaches a broad base of actors
involved in promoting gender equality in the participating Member States, which
are Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
The NDP Gender Equality Unit has a number of areas of responsibility for
gender mainstreaming including capacity building and systems development. It
provides advice, training and information and also supports
the participation of community and voluntary groups in the gender
mainstreaming process. Developing appropriate indicators as well as collecting
and analysing data to support gender mainstreaming are also some of its tasks.
The GEU advises on the gender impact assessment of policy proposals drawn up in
the framework of the NDP and is engaged in a research programme to assess and
support gender mainstreaming. In addition, the unit is monitoring the extent to
which NDP commitments on gender equality are being met and it reports its
findings to various structures established under the plan.
This glimpse of the GEU's activities promises that a comprehensive learning
journey will take place during the Peer Review, revisiting a gender
mainstreaming process that is driven by a dedicated structure with broad
expertise and responsibilities which, in turn, is backed by the firm political
will of a committed Government.
Input papers for the event will be available on the
Finnish Equal website.
For more information on the GM CoP's aims and
activities, have a look at the
contributions and achievements of its
first Peer Review that concentrated on Gender Mainstreaming as an asset in
regional and local development.
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